Digital Project Management Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Indiana University Digital Library Program

You are not alone. NISO/IMLS: A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. 3 rd edition, December ▫Collections (organized groups of objects) ▫Objects (digital materials) ▫Metadata (information about objects and collections) ▫Initiatives (programs or projects to create and manage collections) Principles from this framework integrated into this presentation July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 2

Achieving good collections Curated, cohesive group of materials Adherence to standards and best practices We must do things the way that others do them We must use commons systems or create metadata in ways that allow us to share The Internet means that we are all in it together – large and small. Digital libraries are by nature collaborative and national/international. July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 3 *Summary by Kristine Brancolini

Collaboration Many people must actively work together to implement a digital project We must collaborate within and between institutions Collaboration requires work! ▫Managing expectations and personalities ▫Understanding each other’s perspectives ▫Group decision-making July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 4

Communication and documentation Effective collaboration requires open communication Consensus may not always be necessary ▫But allow all participants the opportunity to present their views ▫Give them adequate time to formulate opinions Documentation is key, but don’t expect people to read it July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 5

Why is all of this necessary? Sustainability. July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 6

Digital Project Workflow July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 7 PLAN ASSESS DELIVER STOREDIGITIZE DESCRIBE

Clearly articulate your goals – the entire project plan extends from this ▫Envision what services you will provide ▫Define your primary user groups Rights issues Timelines Funding July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 8 PLANPLAN Planning is the most important stage.

Timelines Should be clearly articulated, even for ongoing work Will need constant revision Build in flexibility ▫Staff turnover ▫Even average production rates aren’t average Be aware of dependencies July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 9

Funding Will be discussed tomorrow Funding model depends on the situation Some possible sources ▫State/Federal granting agencies – if you’re doing something innovative ▫Campus – for starting up new initiatives ▫Incorporate into operating budget – moving to a sustainable model July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 10

You’ve heard a great deal about this already! Takes up a significant proportion of the project budget Designing a good workflow ▫Connect milestones to your project timeline ▫Set production benchmarks, but alter them when necessary ▫Be sure to include preparation/ preservation of physical materials ▫Ensure effective communication with prior and later stages July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 11 DIGITIZEDIGITIZE

Objects must meet defined uses Master and derivative image specifications should support services defined in the project plan ▫Masters should also be created to support future uses, at least as far as we can imagine ▫Don’t just copy others’ specifications without understanding if they will work for you Bottom line: there is no truly neutral view of a resource July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 12

Automation We have too many important things to do to spend our effort performing repetitive tasks ▫Manually distributing files to multiple places ▫Creating derivatives one by one ▫ ing lists of images to people who need to know Small, nimble tools should be used for these tasks ▫Programming support when you can get it ▫Maximize use of existing tools (e.g., Office) July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 13

If no one can find your resources, the rest isn’t of much use The VR community is among the most active specialist community in this area ▫Lots of opinions and experience out there ▫Sharing of expertise is common, but sharing of data and practices is not! Pick the right standards Design an effective workflow Need good tools July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 14 DESCRIBEDESCRIBE

Selecting appropriate standards Elings/Waibel: “Metadata for All” article in First Monday, 2007 ▫Argues standards should reflect materials, not holding institution ▫Slides and books, for example, should be treated differently Many decisions must be made ▫Descriptive metadata structure standards ▫Content standards ▫Controlled vocabularies ▫Technical, administrative, structural metadata July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 15

Workflow issues Optimize use of existing metadata Put the right information in front of the right person at the right time Automate when appropriate Design to be re-usable Many of the same issues apply from the digitization phase ▫Connect milestones to your project timeline ▫Set production benchmarks, but alter them when necessary ▫Ensure effective communication with prior and later stages July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 16

Metadata quality control Patterns (and outliers) emerge from data in the aggregate Reporting capabilities ▫Sortable, deduplicated lists of values from a given field or set of fields ▫How many of this field per record ▫How many distinct values used in this field ▫Data overlap between fields July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 17

Tools Must be re-usable Modularize when possible Types of tools that might help ▫Auto-complete ▫Spell-check ▫Integrated controlled vocabularies ▫Data integrity checking ▫Metadata transformation stylesheets July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 18

Will be discussed tomorrow Not just sticking files somewhere Likely can’t do it effectively on your own Some initiatives to be aware of ▫ICPSR Digital Preservation Tutorial ▫Open Archival Information System (OAIS) ▫RLG/OCLC Trusted Digital Repositories repositories.pdf July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 19 STORESTORE

Will discuss in great detail later today Delivery services drive all other project requirements Discovery ▫Allows users to find resources that meet their needs Use ▫Allows users to do interesting things with the resources once they find them Promotion ▫“Build it and they will come” hasn’t been effective in this area July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 20 DELIVERDELIVER

Building and maintaining systems Plan for ongoing improvement ▫User expectations change ▫Technology changes ▫New usage scenarios emerge You will migrate to another system eventually ▫Plan for persistent URLs ▫Ensure conformance to standards ▫Limit the degree to which you design for a specific system July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 21

Interoperability and sharing Local users are often the first priority But we need to start thinking more widely ▫We’re duplicating too much effort at our individual institutions ▫Our data could be used to support services we haven’t even imagined ▫Increasingly, working on our own is not sustainable Consider this when choosing and implementing delivery systems July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 22

Digital projects are never done Ongoing development is more than simply adding more content over time In the current environment, need to repeatedly justify our investments ▫Progress reports ▫User-focused assessments ▫Comparative analyses Don’t forget usage statistics Must constantly monitor new developments in the field July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 23 ASSESSASSESS

Bottom line Learn from experience (yours and others’) Project management is an active process Most difficult parts ▫Managing dependencies ▫Ensuring effective communication ▫Balancing the ideal and the practical Think big! July 11, 2008Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management 24